Chapter 1002 The Returnee's Notes 76
"Because someone pulled me out of the water. She was a female student from the county. I called her Aunt Qing. She was wearing a skirt, which showed off her fair legs. I thought she was very pretty."
The female ghost glanced in Wang Ze's direction, "But those people laughed at female students like Aunt Qing and the others, thinking they were unruly, and those men even went to lift their skirts."
I could tell they were terrified, but they were also very brave. They grabbed wooden sticks and started fighting with those men... I have a father, but not my biological father. He's only seven years older than me.
My father went to school with those female students, and Aunt Qing was my father's classmate.
My father didn't like my mother, so he ran away... Aunt Qing came to deliver the things my father left behind, and then she saw me getting married. It was my first time riding in an oxcart, but Aunt Qing stopped me.
The female ghost seemed lost in her memories, "She asked her mother, 'Why did you marry me off when I was only nine years old...'"
Because families can't afford to raise girls, the girls here are betrothed as soon as they are born, and then sent to their husbands' families to be raised when they are a few years old.
Huang Lili spat, "You can't afford to raise a girl, but you can afford to raise a boy?"
Xie Ning recalled some stories told by the elderly neighbor and whispered, "There's another reason. During the Republic of China era, this place was a bandit's den. If a girl in a family wasn't betrothed, she would be kidnapped and never be found again."
Those bandits specifically kidnapped young girls to sell.
"If you make an appointment with someone, the bandits will have to return the person they kidnap, otherwise they will incur public wrath." It's quite ridiculous, though; it's fine to kidnap a daughter, but not a wife.
"Of course Aunt Qing couldn't stop me. At the time, I didn't understand why she wanted to stop me. I was clearly going there to enjoy a life of luxury... but later I realized it wasn't a life of luxury. Just like Aunt Qing said, it was a cage that confined me..."
Perhaps some people are truly living well, but she is not. She has endless chores every day and is just hoping that her mother-in-law will give birth to a son, who will be her future husband.
Later, when she was fifteen, she met her husband. Then, she was raped by her family's day laborer in a cornfield, but she dared not tell anyone.
Because she saw in the ancestral hall that the man who had done that kind of thing with another man was arrested, the man was beaten to death, and the woman was tied with stones and drowned in the lake.
She was terrified, and then the farmhand ran away. She... couldn't escape because her belly was getting bigger.
"They're all criticizing me. Did I really do something wrong?"
Xie Ning lit another incense stick, not the Soul-Guiding Incense, but just ordinary incense, but ghosts could eat it.
After eating the incense, the female ghost's condition improved significantly, and her aura became less agitated.
"You already know that in your heart, don't you?" Xie Ning sighed. If it weren't for that, it wouldn't have said it would protect Xiao Liu.
Upon hearing this, the female ghost grinned, looking even more terrifying, but both Huang Lili and Xie Ning were used to it.
"It was never my fault!"
So Xiaoliu wasn't wrong either. I entered her dream. She was just bullied and fought back, but those people thought she was just playing around and said she had relationships with many boys in the class. Why?
Why do people always think of a woman this way? "Many men criticize her, but many women also criticize her."
Whether it's Xiao Liu or the other female students mentioned by the girls in dormitory 104, did they really do anything wrong? Are they really bad?
Xie Ning sorted out her thoughts, "Let's set aside gender and talk about people from another perspective."
The reason those people slandered her is precisely because Xiaoliu and her friends are so outstanding. To judge whether someone is outstanding, you shouldn't only look at their grades.
Take Xiao Liu as an example. Although she is a bit timid and has a gentle personality, and her grades are not top-notch, she has a great talent for painting and her paintings are very beautiful.
She is also very gentle and kind, helpful, and cute... these are all her strengths.
Many of her classmates, regardless of gender, actually liked her.
Slander is itself a form of admiration.
But it's not good to slander people.
We can't control what others think, but we can control ourselves. We can treat slander as something others admire, and use it to motivate ourselves to become stronger.
Xie Ning paused, looking into the female ghost's eyes, "From a gender perspective, it's the social environment that's biased. People's minds have been subjected to a long period of indoctrination, making it difficult for them to accept new ideas quickly, and it takes time."
Therefore, many people, regardless of gender, subconsciously deny the excellence of women, even if they themselves are sometimes unaware of it.
Or rather, it denies the existence of women's value, tolerates men's mistakes while being harsh on women, even if they haven't done anything wrong—perhaps just wearing a dress—but they believe it must be wrong.
The female ghost stared blankly at Xie Ning, "I don't understand."
She was just a village woman who had been trapped in the mountains all her life. The most learned people she had ever met were her father and Aunt Qing. As if thinking of something, the female ghost moved closer to Xie Ning.
"Although I don't understand, I know you're telling me that this is not wrong, that I'm not wrong, that they shouldn't have killed me, shouldn't have cursed me, and that Xiao Liu didn't do anything wrong either, right?"
"right."
Huang Lili nodded vigorously, though she was also confused.
The female ghost laughed, "You and Aunt Qing are the same; you always speak in ways I don't understand, but I know you both want to help me."
Xie Ning gripped his sword tightly and remained silent.
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